P Versus NP Problem - Formal Definition For NP-completeness

Formal Definition For NP-completeness

There are many equivalent ways of describing NP-completeness.

Let be a language over a finite alphabet .

is NP-complete if, and only if, the following two conditions are satisfied:

  1. ; and
  2. any is polynomial-time-reducible to (written as ), where if, and only if, the following two conditions are satisfied:
    1. There exists such that 
\forall w\in\Sigma^{*}(w\in L^{'}\Leftrightarrow f(w)\in L); and
    2. there exists a polynomial-time Turing machine that halts with on its tape on any input .

Read more about this topic:  P Versus NP Problem

Famous quotes containing the words formal and/or definition:

    On every formal visit a child ought to be of the party, by way of provision for discourse.
    Jane Austen (1775–1817)

    ... if, as women, we accept a philosophy of history that asserts that women are by definition assimilated into the male universal, that we can understand our past through a male lens—if we are unaware that women even have a history—we live our lives similarly unanchored, drifting in response to a veering wind of myth and bias.
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)